Reviews with content warning for Colonisation - Welch grausames Ende

Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Welch grausames Ende by Chloe Gong

52 reviews

lectricefeministe's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

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ladygetslit's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

There will be hatred. There will be war. The country will fight itself to pieces. It will starve its people, ravage its land, poison its breath. Shanghai will fall and break and cry. But alongside everything, there has to be love—eternal, undying, enduring. Burn through vengeance and terror and warfare. Burn through everything that fuels the human heart and sears it red, burn through everything that covers the outside with hard muscle and tough sinew. Cut down deep and grab what beats beneath, and it is love that will survive after everything else has perished.

My Personal Opinion: It is a rare sequel that lives up to the first installment, but Our Violent Ends managed to blow me away. This book has everything: political intrigue based in Chinese history, queer and trans representation, family drama, mysterious monsters, loyal friend groups, and (of course) star-crossed love.

My Teacher Opinion: this would be an amazing replacement for Romeo & Juliet, although I may ruffle feathers by saying so. I do think the duology would be best for an upper level high school class, due to the pretty heavy violence and complexity of the political plot lines.

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takarakei's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I am honestly pretty apathetic about this series. I really really wanted to like these, but ultimately I really struggled to get through both books.

I did not like the writing style or pacing of these books. The way the story is written makes it hard to follow, and I found the writing to be repetitive and boring. I found myself having to constantly re-read paragraphs but at the same time not really caring about what I was reading. Ultimately I did not care for Juliette and Roma’s relationship. After finishing the first book I found myself wondering why it is I just didn’t seem to really *get* their relationship - supposedly this is enemies to lovers (which is my favorite trope btw) but beyond this giant familial rivalry which is described over and over again I honestly did not feel enough tension or hatred between them to build up and make me care about them ending up together. I did not find either Juliette or Roma to be very complex and therefore their relationship was not impactful.

Throughout both books I was way more interested in the secondary characters: Benedikt and Marshall and Kathleen in particular. I found myself wishing for more time spent with these characters and their journey, struggles and development. To me, Kathleen is the real intriguing character of the series - she is way smarter, complex and ultimately I think more badass than Juliette. I would have rather been reading her story and POV solely.

In both books the monsters that plague the city and the entire plot-line there did not really intrigue me. Even less so in Our Violent Ends since it’s an even smaller part of the second book, and seems very in the background of everything else going on politically in this world.

Did I feel like the second book was better than the first? maybe a bit, but since it’s longer than the first book the pacing was even more of an issue for me. There were parts of the second book that I did enjoy reading but they were too far and fewer between (and were pretty much solely the parts from the secondary characters' POV).

I pushed myself to finish the books because I did want to see how it ended, but I was left feeling unfulfilled. The “climax” of the story feels like it drags on for too long, and I kept thinking “ok is this IT yet?”

I honestly think that it would have been more impactful to not leave the ending open the way it is and stick more to the source of Romeo and Juliet dying - because in Shakespeare’s tragedy them dying is what teaches those around them that violence, power struggle and hatred between people are the evils that corrupt our world. They die for love and for each other, and without that the ending fell flat. Perhaps it is intentional that the author will continue the series and eventually bring these lessons around to this world and those living in it? but I likely won’t be reading on.

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ourlastopus's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

we can clearly see how much chloe gong has evolved as a writer in this incredible sequel; this killed me in the best way possible
ok, now i’m going back to crying

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shannnne_reads_words's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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sunlit_music's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is one of the greatest books I've ever read, and it nearly broke me emotionally.

Chloe Gong writes about colonialism and war so passionately and intelligently, and seeing how civil war was tearing Shanghai and other parts of China apart was just devastating.

The power shifts and politics are well set up, unpredictable and extremely clever. There's nuanced portrayals of racism, sexism and lgbt+ themes. Not a single word is wasted.

The prose is beautiful, brutal, energetic and flowing. Dialogue moves seamlessly and the characters' banter is witty and clever.

I just did not want to walk away from the characters, I love them so much.

All the characters are so layered and nuanced, and change over time like real people, I feel like I know them.

Roma and Juliet's sacrificed so much, I just wanted them to be happy together and alive, but the tragic ending for them made sense, even though it's heartbreaking.

Alisa is so lovable, she lifts my mood. I don't know if there's going to be a sequel about her, but if there is, I'd totally read it.

Benedikt and Marshall are so incredible and love each other so much. They risk their lives for each other and their friends and are so tender and funny with each other. I just can't express how much I love them.

Kathleen is selfless, fierce and unstoppable, and she is fantastic. She is so underrated.

Plotting was phenomenal, with triumph and tragedy stemming from the characters' actions. All believable, all heartbreaking.

Descriptions of Shanghai are so raw, heartfelt and sincere. Also loved the contrast the rural town of Kunlon presented, it sounded like such a beautiful and peaceful place.

The ending is devastating, but also hopeful in a way. All is not lost, and Roma and Juliette really did save many lives.

I love how tenderly and sensitively this book portrays grief and loss, and how Roma and Juliette are determined to end their families' toxic blood feud.

The ending totally wrecked me, but it was worth it. This book is a fitting conclusion to the 'These Violent Delights' duology and a worthy retelling of Romeo and Juliet.

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eve_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Overall Thoughts:
⁕ Gong takes the beloved enemies-to-lovers trope and raises you enemies-to-lovers-to-enemies-and-back-to-lovers-again FLAWLESSLY. She doesn't ignore the conflict between their families and political parties, but builds that tension into every scene between them. It's an agonizing slow-burn with the greatest payoff.

⁕ This sequel was even more enriched with historical context than These Violent Delights. I've never read a book in this setting before and loved learning about/researching 1920's Shanghai.

⁕ [spoilers] I love the small bit of hope that Gong concludes this duology with. She still honors the authentic tragedy of Romeo and Juliet but also makes space for the reader to explore other possibilities for her main characters.

To read my full review, visit: https://evereads.online/
For regular book-related content, follow my Instagram account: @eve_reads

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ashleycmms's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

If you liked book one, book two is an amazing pairing that brings the chaos and tragedy of the R&J story. While opening up an interesting world for what is to come afterwards. I would definitely suggest picking it up, if that’s the case for you. However, I am on the other side where I was anticipating Book 1 forever and felt bored and disappointed throughout it. While Book 2 gives some character development and explains some of the GAPING context holes, for me, it still wasn’t a WIN. I’m glad I gave the second book a chance, but the blood feud remains nonsensical, Roma & Juliette continue putting each other above everyone else EXCEPT the people that they DO NOT KNOW who they feel the need to protect for no reason but the city is “theirs” and they feel responsible… For a mess they did not create. The length/pacing of this was too drawn out for me. And it made all the parts that could have made this a 4/5 star read for me feel lost in all the other plot lines, characters, etc. I’m tired. I never want to dive into this world again.

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_persephone_'s review against another edition

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emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Omg was this book was so good, probably one of the best books I've read this year. It was beautifully written in so many different ways, the writing style, the characters, the romance. I truly cannot think of a single complaint and I recommend this book to everyone. Also

the first half of the book where Roma hated Juliette I wanted to sob, istg I cried happy tears when they got back together

.
And I heard there's gonna be a spin-off duology about

Rosalind

(I don't actually know if that was a spoiler but better safe than sorry). And I can't wait.

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claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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